Viewers were excited to tune into Conan O’Brien’s Monday premiere … but they weren’t as pumped on Tuesday. Conan’s cable show lost one-third of its viewers in the transition from Day 1 to Day 2.

Maybe Jon Stewart is to blame? O’Brien’s new late night talk show is competing directly with the cable king, and we don’t like his odds. Monday’s Conan scored 4.2 million viewers, compared to 2.8 million the following night. (His rival Jay Leno averages around 3.6 million for his famous network gig.)

Critics were largely unenthusiastic with the Monday premiere. One writer at the Los Angeles Times complained about O’Brien’s endless NBC jokes, a gag that’s running a little thin nine months after the Tonight Show fallout.

Advertisement

The former NBC funnyman will debut his Conan, a new late night series, at 11 pm on Monday … and that means he’s facing the toughest of all late night competition.

According to TVByTheNumbers, The Daily Show is the top-rated late night show among adults age 18 - 49. The numbers are in, and Jon Stewart is officially the king of late night … but during one of the weeks reviewed, The Daily Show, The Tonight Show and Late Show with David Letterman were all showing re-runs.

We have a sneaking suspicion that all Daily Show ratings spikes come just when FOX News hires new staffers.

Has the tide gone down for CBS at 10:00? For the first time since its debut, Hawaii Five-0 was bested by Castle in the hour. ABC’s victory in that time slot helped the network take another double win (viewers and demos) on Monday.

Late this week, NBC came just shy of canceling the freshman series altogether. The program – starring Jimmy Smits – was placed on production hiatus after three nights’ worth of dismal numbers.

That decision was made before the program’s latest outing – which earned in 4.2 million viewers and a 1.0/3 in the 18-49 demo. Should the network continue to air the finished episodes, we could still see four more weeks of the show.

The battle for Wednesday night’s 10:00 hour is proving to be an interesting one. Last week, the debut of Law & Order: Los Angeles bested The Defenders in both the viewers and the demos. This week, Defenders took the viewers, while NBC’s program won the demos. What will happen in Week 3? Place your bets now.

FOX’s decision to quickly replace Lone Star with veteran Lie to Me was validated in the ratings last night. Unfortunately, the move really didn’t make a difference in the overall rankings. ABC was still the winner in both the viewers and demos thanks to reality hit Dancing with the Stars.

Another Wednesday night meant another double-win for CBS. The network, with help from Criminal Minds and Survivor, took both the viewers and the demos. CBS did see a loss, though, in the 10:00 hour. That’s when Law & Order: Los Angeles defeated The Defenders in the time slot.

Countless spoilers related to yesterday’s Glee didn’t keep viewers from watching the entire episode. In fact, Britney Spears fans turned out in record numbers. Meanwhile, ABC’s premiere of No Ordinary Family did quite well in Week 1 despite facing direct competition from the musical event.

Are viewers already bored with the Monday schedule? Minus a few exceptions, the ratings chart this week was full of down arrows—including one for The Event, the series that has raised a lot of buzz for NBC. In the end, Dancing with the Stars’ ballroom action kept ABC on top of the viewers and the demos.